HalWick

Stace Nelson

PIERRE — South Dakota lawmakers took steps Monday to require more disclosure of political spending after a year in which several top legislative leaders were attacked by anonymous robocalls.

Senate Bill 200, which passed a Senate committee unanimously, would require individuals who spend more than $100 on political communication to file disclosure statements.

The previous law needed $1,000 in spending before disclosure was required, and didn’t apply at all to independent political expenditures made more than 60 days before an election.

Last summer and fall, top Republican leaders were targeted by robocalls from groups claiming to be “Veterans Against Unethical Politicians.” No group by that name registered with South Dakota’s secretary of state.

No one has admitted to being behind those robocalls, but activist Daniel Willard has been charged with misdemeanors for allegedly helping to pay for them. Willard maintains his innocence.

Committee approves teen driving ideas

Four bills that seek to give 14- and 15-year-old drivers more supervised time to practice while taking away distractions won the Senate Transportation Committee’s endorsement.

A teen driving task force created by the 2011 Legislature produced the recommendations, and each one cleared its first hurdle Monday.

Supporters said the proposals will cut down on the state’s high rate of teen traffic deaths while making reasonable accommodations for families that rely on teens to drive themselves and their friends to school.

“We are, more or less, at least twice as dangerous a place for teens to drive … compared to the rest of the nation,” said Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, a former police chief who led the task force.

Some lawmakers said the most important of the four bills is Senate Bill 216, establishing a statewide driver education program under the control of the Departments of Public Safety and Education. The state now simply checks that driver education instructors have completed a certain number of hours of training; if the bill passes, the state agencies would decide on common curriculum standards and ongoing training for instructors.

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“If you want to have an impact on all these problems, driver’s ed is really the key,” said Sen. David Omdahl, R-Sioux Falls.

It’s the only of the four proposals that includes a price tag. If it passes, the state will hire one full-time coordinator.

No one lobbied against any of the bills, but two that seek to limit in-car distractions received the most opposition from within the committee.

Omdahl wondered whether police would be able to enforce the ban and worries that teen drivers will take their eyes off the road for longer periods of time as they try to hide their cell phone use.

Unlike the city of Sioux Falls’ texting and driving ban for all drivers, SB106 would prohibit any phone use by teen drivers with an instruction or restricted permit.

Stacey Eggert of the South Dakota Sheriffs Association said making phone use illegal would help teens who might otherwise feel pressured to use their phones while driving.

“It gives these teens a crutch,” she said.

No felony for hiring illegal immigrants

A state bill that would have made it a felony to hire workers who are in the U.S. illegally died in committee.

The House Energy and Commerce committee voted 8-4 to kill a proposal that would have put employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants on the same footing as identity thieves.

The measure was one-half of a legislative package introduced by Rep. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, that was closely patterned after controversial immigration reforms passed in Arizona.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 upheld a law in that state that provided sanctions for employers that hire illegal immigrants.

Although South Dakota doesn’t have as many illegal immigrants as other states — opponents cited estimates of fewer than 1 percent of the population — Nelson said the state shouldn’t wait until the problem grows worse.

But Nathan Sanderson, an aide to Gov. Dennis Daugaard, testified against the bill, as did a a number of farm and business groups who said the law was too tough.

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Jim Hood, a lobbyist for the South Dakota Retailers Association, called the bill “unenforceable, unnecessary, unreadable, onerous and vague.”

Apartment owners' proposals defeated

Lawmakers shot down two bills pushed by apartment owners, saying the proposals would put too much pressure on the working poor and on the state’s court system.

A measure that would have increased the maximum security deposit allowed by law from one month’s rent to two month’s rent, died 9-4 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The panel unanimously voted down a House proposal that would have required clerks of court in South Dakota to return criminal background checks within four hours.

Both bills were sponsored by Rep. Hal Wick, R-Sioux Falls. On the issue of security deposits, Wick noted that replacing a carpet in an apartment can cost far more than the one month’s rent allowable by law as a security deposit.

Many other states do not restrict the amount landlords can charge for security deposits, said Dan Siefkin, the director of the South Dakota Multi-Housing Association.

“We don’t hear horror stories from neighboring states about deposits because there’s no cap,” Siefken said.

In other action Monday:

■ A proposal to punish adults who host parties with underage drinking was killed, the second defeat for a “social host” bill this session. Opponents argued that the measure was poorly worded and said they worried that it wouldn’t protect property owners who didn’t know about a party.

■ Gov. Dennis Daugaard is opposed to expanding Medicaid, but he’s also against forbidding South Dakota from expanding Medicaid. That’s the message that came out Monday, when Daugaard’s administration helped persuade the House State Affairs committee to reject a bill banning a state endorsement of Medicaid.

■ Two largely Democratic reform efforts were defeated on party-line votes. A House resolution would have set up a public vote on legislative redistricting reform. It called for a nonpartisan commission to replace the current panel of elected legislators, and for smaller single-member House districts instead of two House members per district.

The other rejected measure was a House proposal that would have increased the state’s annual increase in K-12 education funding from 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less, to 4 percent or inflation.

■ Concerns about hackers didn’t persuade a committee to bar the scanning of identity documents by driver’s licensing employees. State officials said scanning info makes things more efficient and helps combat fraud.

■ A bill making it easier for home-schooled students to get Opportunity Scholarship will be heard another day. After intense debate in the House, it was deferred until its budgetary effect is analyzed.